Oslo Again Proves To Be Hot Spot For Maritime Innovation
Nor-Shipping, held every two years in Oslo, continues to grow in importance and is regarded as one of the international maritime industry's premier events. This year's show featured 20 national pavilions, with groups of companies from the U.S. to Norway to Japan gathering together to exhibit their wares. The exhibition, as always, was used as a launching spot for a number of new products and services by some of the industry's leading companies. The following is a quick-read guide of new products and services announced in Oslo — as well as significant news — for those who were unable to attend the event. For additional information, please circle the appropriate number on the Reader Service Card in this issue.
Ed Waryas, Newport News Shipbuilding's director of Marketing for Commercial Ship Construction and Repair told MR/EN that the yard has been awarded a contract for work on five ships operated by Maersk Lines Ltd. The work performed will include drydocking, maintenance and repair of the five U.S.-flagged RoRo vessels dedicated to the U.S. Marine Corps' Maritime Prepositioning Ship Program, and include MTV 1st Lt. Alex Bonnyman, M/V Cpl. Louis J. Hauge, Jr., M/V Pfc. William B. Baugh, M/V Pvt.
Franklin J. Phillips, and M/V Pfc. James Anderson, Jr.
"We are very pleased to be working once again with such a respected shipping company as Maersk," said Mr. Waryas.
The first ship was scheduled to arrive in mid-June, and work on all five is scheduled to be completed by the beginning of 1998.
A new consortium serving navigation and software needs was also announced at Nor-Shipping. United Software Distributors (USD) is a strategic alliance of five international chart distributors, together with a marine software company, that will provide the international maritime community with electronic charts and related software. The six companies will not only supply and provide updates for electronic charts, but July, 1997 Ed Waryas of Newport News Shipbuilding announced new contracts at Nor-Shiupping.
in addition, the Microplot software will display and add a multitude of features to electronic charts. USD sees Microplot as an extremely user-friendly product, whose popularity justifies the six companies endorsement of the product to their customers. Currently, there are more than 400 permanent installations of the program. The six companies in the new consortium include: Thomas Gunn N - 97 N a v i g a t i o n S e r v i c e s ( A b e r d e e n , S c o t l a n d ) ;(Baltimore, Md.); Motion Smith (Singapore); Navicharts AS (Oslo); Safe Navigation Inc. (Long Beach, Calif.) Sea Information Systems (Aberdeen, Scotland.) USD believes it is on the cutting edge of marine technology, as it contends that over the next few Puget Sound Rope years, paper charts will disappear and will be replaced by electronic charts, displayed by ECDIS systems which are usually based on an Intel chip, the heart of a standard PC. USD said the Microplot system is designed to accept both raster and vector charts, and is compatible with the chart formats of ARCS, Livechart and NOAA.
Another consortium of companies was introduced to help shipowners come into compliance with the International Safety Management (ISM) Code, which is to take effect in July 1998. It is estimated that more than 6,500 companies and 19,000 vessels around the world are not currently in compliance with the new regulation, and international authorities continue to warn shipowners that there will be consequences for those vessels and owners who chose to delay the 1012 Second Street, Anacortes,WA 98221-1956 TEL: 360-293-8488 FAX: 360-293-8480 process. The new association, International Association of Quality Surveyors (IAQS), seeks to help hundreds of shipowners from having their vessels banned from leading ports. IAQS is a group including ECM/Hudson, MARCARE and Murray Fenton and Associates. The ISM Code stipulates that all oil and chemical tankers, gas carriers, bulk cargo ships and passenger ships must adhere to the regulation by July 1, 1998. All owners of cargo ships over 500 grt are required to comply with the Code by July 1, 2002. "Our aim is to combine the resources to provide worldwide consultancy and smooth the path for shipowners seeking accreditation for the ISM Code," said John Noble, Murray Fenton's managing director. "To date, only a small percentage of the world's tonnage is certified." In noting the seemingly uniform resistance to the ISM code, ECM/Hudson's Per Christensen said that, in general, the shipping industry is very conservative and resists change, as many companies feel that its qualities and systems are sufficient. However, the overwhelming message from the IAQS group is "you can't avoid ISM." Seeking to garner more business from the booming offshore market, Odim AS announced its new offshore mooring and offloading concept at Nor-Shipping.
The new concept is designed for installation onboard FPSO and FSU units, and is designed to transfer crude oil from production ships to shuttle tankers. Two people can reportedly handle the system in a simple, safe manner. All components are installed on the vessel's poop deck, and equipment includes: hose reel in frame/catwalk, pre-rigged with hydraulic powerpack and cable drum; control cabin for mooring/offloading; winch with messenger line to offloading hose, hoisting power and braking power of one ton; 600- ton hawser winch, with a hoisting power of five tons; a hydraulic powerpack for hawser winch, messenger line winch and service crane; battery charger; junction box and hydraulic valve blocks; and oil heater.
Telia Mobile announced the introduction of a new e-mail services in MARITEX, with gateways to users of cc:mail, internet mail and X.400 mail. The move is designed to improve the communications capabilities between ship and shore, extending the scope of MARITEX services in line with increased flexibility demands.
MARITEX is a c o m p u t e r i z e d , global network for maritime text comm u n i c a t i o n s owned and operated by Telia Mobile.
Saab Marine Electronics now offers its popular TankRadar for liquefied gas carriers. The unit not only measures level, but also tank pressure, vapor and liquid temperature, as well as trim and list. The new radar gauge is a further refinement of the Saab TankRadar G3 system. The new system has no moving parts, is intrinsically safe and has only its stainless steel cone antenna in the tank vapor. The still pipe directs the microwaves so that the gauge can measure reliably, even when liquefied gas is boiling. United Arab Shipping Company (USAC) has selected MacGregor Securing Division's CV-20 dual function twistlock for its ten new containerships. USAC the shipowner consortium backed by six Arabian Gulf States has contracted MacGregor's Securing Division to supply all fixed and loose container fittings (loose fittings including 10 percent spare) including the new CV-20 dual function twistlock for its latest series of ten 24-knot containerships. The vessels are to be built by a trio of Japanese yards, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries (the lead yard), which will build four of the 3,800-TEU vessels, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding which will each build three ships.
The new dual-function, semiautomatic twistlock type CV- 20/DUAL/2 has a symmetrical design which means it can be inserted either way up.
MacGregor also announced that its innovative tween deck covers are to be featured on a trio of 7,500-dwt multipurpose vessels designed to carry cargoes including steel coils, containers and dry bulk. The weatherdeck hatches are served by MacGregor folding panel-pair cover sets, while the tween decks, in the No. 2 and 3 holds are arranged fairly low (well below the mid-height of the hold). Maryl
